Let's open our Bibles to Exodus
17. I hope I'll be able to explain
to you why I like this picture we're given here in Exodus 17.
It's like I like a picture of Gomer. I'm Gomer. I'm left out by myself. provided for unknowingly until
the Lord exposed my lewdness and came to me and purchased
me with a price. I like that story of the riotous
living son. That was me. I took what I thought
was good and run off. Come crawling back and found
grace. I like the story of his elder
brother. There have been times after that that I've done what
was right. Stuck to it. I got mad. Got jealous. Look at this younger
brother I got. Raising Cain. I've been here
faithful. And the Father spoke to me. We're
going to see here Jehovah Nissi. The Lord our banner. Exodus 17,
we get in verse 8. Exodus 17, 8. Then Amalek. Then came Amalek and fought with
Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, choose
us out men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will
stand on top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So
Joshua did as Moses had said unto him and fought with Amalek.
And Moses, Aaron and Hur, went up to the top of the hill. And
it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that rod of God
in his hand, that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand,
Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy.
And they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat there
on. And Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands. the one on one
side and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady
until the going down of the sun. Joshua disconfited Amalek and
his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said unto
Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in
the ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. and Moses built an altar
and called the name of it Jehovah Nisi. For he said because the
Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from
generation to generation." I got my title Jehovah Nisi from verse
15 there. So Moses built an altar and called
the name of it Jehovah Nisi. That means the Lord our banner. He's our banner. A banner is
a flag. He's an ensign. The words that
we use nowadays for all these things are biblical. It's a standard. It's a certain type of flag. A guidon, an ensign, a banner. I was a guidon bearer for about
six months in the military. I carried the staff with the
flag on it for the unit. And everybody in my unit saw
that flag. And when they saw the flag, they
knew that's where we were supposed to meet. That's where we're supposed
to be at. And there was peace. That's where
we were supposed to be. They weren't worried, or they
were in the right place at the right time. When they saw that, there was
harmony. We were all one unit. There was unity underneath that
banner, underneath that flag. And there was instruction. When
the captain would give an order, not everybody could hear. And
so that flag would be lifted up, or it'd be pushed out, or
it'd be leaned. Whatever that flag did, that
was instructions for those that couldn't hear. It was instructions. Cross Jesus is the believer's
banner. He's our banner. He said in Isaiah
11, and in that day there shall be the root of Jesse, the rod
of Jesse. That's what Moses was holding
up. which shall stand for an ensign of the people. And to it shall the Gentiles
seek, and His rest..." That root of Jesse, that banner, it's a
person. "...His rest shall be glorious." The cross of Jesus
has been given for a banner for the purpose. God's elect scattered
throughout the world. us Gentiles, every tribe and
kindred and tongue throughout time that are His, that we might
be gathered to Him. Christ is our glorious rest.
We come to Him and that's where our rest is. David wrote, Thou
hast given a banner to them that fear Thee. The Father gave this
banner to those that fear Thee that it might be displayed because
of the truth. Christ our banner was given by
God the Father to us. Christ was given as a banner
to them that fear God, them that honor Him, them that know Him,
believe Him. And God has given Christ to us
as a banner to be displayed. We don't hide this candle underneath
a jar, underneath a mattress, do we? It's to be displayed because
of the truth, because of who He is. person and work of Christ. Because what do you accomplish?
Christ is an ensign of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek,
as David said. The Son of Man must be lifted
up. He must be lifted high so everyone
could see Him. And that new heart that He makes
in His children. The new heart put in us, the
new man. He must be lifted up in our new hearts. In the gospel
it goes forth. Gospel we support. We proclaim. Christ must be lifted up. And
in all of our glorying before God, we lift up what we do. We lift up our choices, our will,
what we think, what we've done right and what we've done wrong.
No, we exalt Christ. We lift up Christ our banner.
He must be exalted. And we'll see here in our text
why it's necessary for us to exalt Christ, for our banner
to be exalted. It says in verse eight, then
came Amalek. and fought with Israel in Rephidim. It says then. Something happened
before that, didn't it? In those first few verses we
see Christ the smitten rock. Christ Jesus is that rock. It
pictures Him being smitten on the cross and then those waters
of life flowing out from Him to His people. The Holy Spirit
flows in the heart of His people because of what Christ accomplished
in putting away the sin of His people. and His action, what
He accomplished. You that believe, you believe
because through God the Holy Spirit, you've been made a partaker
of that divine nature. He circumcised our hearts, given
us a new heart, and we're made to drink that water of life freely
through faith in Christ. His faith that He's given us,
we drink of Him freely. And after we were made to drink
that living water from across our rock, then, after, then came
Amalek. They had been chasing and chiding
Moses. The Lord said, you smite the
rock, give them the water from the rock. And then came Amalek. Those Amalekites, those were
the descendants of Esau. Remember Jacob and Esau. Jacob
was Israel, wasn't he? That was God's people in picture. That physical nation come out
of Jacob. And they had all those benefits.
That's what Paul was going through with the Romans. Telling them,
look at all these benefits they had. They had the tabernacle,
the pillar, and the fire, and all these pictures of Christ
all throughout. Lord have blessed them greatly
on this earth. But the Amalekites, that's Esau's children. That's
his boys. They didn't have that. There
was a jealousy. There was an anger. And they
came to fight Israel. Israel wasn't fighting the Amalekites.
Amalek came after Israel, didn't he? That's why our believers,
our enemies in this world, they wage war against us. They pick
on us, don't they? They chide us, come after us.
We have many enemies. We have this whole world as an
enemy. Unregenerate people throughout all nations don't care to be
around us, don't care to hear the gospel that we believe, do
they? Satan's an enemy of the believer, seeing who he may devour. Coming after us. But you know
what our chief enemy is? Our chief Amalekite is. It's a warfare against this old
fleshly nature within us. We have two natures. I have no
problem telling anybody that. If you don't think you got two,
you ain't got two yet. You've still got one, but there's
an old man and a new man. Paul experienced that, told us
plainly, and they're warring. One's attacking the other one.
There's a war going on inside of us. But you know that comes
after regeneration. Then, the Malachites came, after
that water of Christ flows freely in us. We didn't have no problems
before. We may have had some inconveniences. We may have had
some disturbances in our lives, things didn't go just right,
but that wasn't a war. It might have been some bickering,
but it wasn't a war, an outright war. Moses was told to write
this for remembrance, to remind Israel of it there in verse 14.
It says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial
in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. For I will
utterly put out remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. He
said, You tell them, and you tell them often, and write it
down and rehearse it. You know what we're doing this
evening? We're rehearsing this. Our enemies, which include ourselves,
my biggest enemy is me, the Lord will utterly put it away. It'll
be blotted out. It'll be gone. He's declared
war on it. And Moses wrote this down. And he reminded him of
it. Later in Deuteronomy 25, he said,
Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way when you were
come forth out of Egypt? How he met thee by the way and
smote the Han most of thee. He came up from behind. Even
all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary,
and he feared not God." You know when Amalek come to him? When
this old flesh comes? When we're weak, when we're feeble,
and when we're bickering. Now we know God. Everything's
fine. I don't like the way Moses did that. You think they were
bickering at Moses before he smoked a rock. Do you think they
bickered after? He should have smoked that rock
sooner. He should have maybe put a little pond there so we
could get some water later and come up when we want to. That's
when Amalek came. The children of Israel had been
quarreling, chiding against Moses. And they were feeble, they were
faint, and they were weary. They were distracted by all this
bickering. And Amalek took advantage. Now we notice this in our text.
We're called to warfare. This isn't something that may
come to pass. This isn't something that you
can choose to take up or not. It's something that's going to
happen. The true Israel of God, or God's chosen people, called
into His light from all four corners of the earth to cross
our banner. And we're called on by Christ our Savior to fight
the enemy. That's what we looked at this
morning. To put off the old man and put on the new. That's a
daily struggle to constantly do it. He says in verse nine
there, and Moses, it's a picture of the law, isn't it? And Moses
said unto Joshua, Joshua means savior, Jehovah saves, choose
us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek. Them people that you choose,
Joshua, they can't fight for themselves. They ain't gonna
win. You're going to have to do it
for them. You're going to have to go out and lead them. You're
going to have to be their captain. It says, go out and fight with
Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand upon the
hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses
had said unto him and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron,
and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass
when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he
let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. We see first there the rod of
God. That rod represents our banner. Christ is the rod of
God. Remember Aaron's rod became the
serpent. He said, you go in front of Pharaoh, you throw that rod
down and it'll become a serpent. Well, he got the soothsayers
to come in. They threw their rods down and
they become serpents too. That one wouldn't like all the
other ones, was it? He went around and ate up all them other ones.
That's the rod of the Lord. Christ is our strength. And as
long as a believer beholds Christ, through His gospel, Him crucified,
through the work of the Spirit, our confidence is in Christ alone
and we prevail in this warfare. As long as we're looking up to
Him, looking at Him being exalted, we're winning. We're prevailing.
But when Christ is not exalted, when that's not the most important
thing, when something else is going on, it's just a little
bit more important. Maybe we ought to talk about this other stuff.
He's let down and he lives not prevailing, being destroyed. Turn over to 1 Peter chapter
5. As believers, as heirs of God,
sons and daughters of God, we must always keep our full attention
on Christ our banner, the Lord our banner. There in 1 Peter
5 verse 8, it says, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary
the devil has a roaring line, walketh about, seeking whom he
may devour. whom resisteth, resist steadfast
in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accompanied
in your brethren that are in the world." This verse is the
same for everyone in Israel, isn't it? Amalek's coming up
behind us when we're bickering, when we're looking at something
else. But the God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal
glory by Jesus Christ After that you have suffered for a while.
We ain't gonna go to war. We're doing what's right. No,
we're gonna suffer So there's gonna be tribulation. It's gonna
happen after you've suffered for a while make you perfect
establish strengthen and settle you What's going to be the result
of all that? Him doing that for His people.
To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. If we're prevailing
in this battle, we're going to be shown that it's Christ being
exalted that makes us prevail. That's what Paul told the Colossians,
said, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which
are above. For Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God, set your affections on things above, not on things
of this earth. I always picture one of those
Louis L'Amour books out there in Arizona or whatever, those
big bluffs, you know, close to the Grand Canyon or something.
Moses is up there where everybody in the valley can see him. And
they're looking up. looking up to that banner, that
rod being lifted. And as they do it, every time
they fight, they're losing. When they look to that, they're
winning. They must be fighting with one eye and hand this way
and looking up with that eye. It's a hard struggle, isn't it?
That's our daily life. Now, back in our text there,
the Lord, our banner, He's our strength in this warfare. He's our strength because of
the glory of Christ's person. Because of who He is. Notice
there that Joshua went into battle with Him. Christ is God with us. Emmanuel. He's the captain of our warfare
and He's with us. He said in Matthew 28, And lo,
I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Why is
He our strength? He's with us. He's able to be
our strength. Next, He's our strength because
of the success of His atonement, what He was sent to do. It's
said in Hebrews 1, when He had by Himself purged our sins, He
sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. He was given
a task, wasn't He? He was given a charge, and He
completed it. He did it by Himself. It's said,
by His own blood, He entered into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. He didn't go try, He obtained.
It was completed. He's our strength because of
the capability of Christ working in His people. In Colossians
2 it says, We're complete in Him, which is the head of all
principality and power, in whom we're circumcised. He's the one
that did that. He circumcised our hearts. And
putting off of the body the sin of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ, and we're buried with Him in baptism. When was I baptized? I was baptized 2,000 years ago.
When John the Baptist baptized Christ. That's what the Father
sees. He said it behooves us that we
do this. And we're risen with Him through His faith who raised
Him from the dead. That means the atonement was
successful. He did obtain. He was a propitiation. Is it
our strength? Is it our faith in any of this?
He goes on and says, and you being dead in your sins, in the
earned circumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with
Him. And He's forgiven all our trespasses. What was we doing
while all this happened? We were dead. He had to perform
it all. Lord, our banner is our strength
because of the power of Christ in preserving grace. He set out
in His person to accomplish a work, and He did. He accomplished it.
He saved His people. And then He preserves His people. And 1 Peter says, "...who are
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to
be revealed in the last time." He keeps us. "...being confident
of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ." He started
this work. He's with us always in this battle
and He'll keep us to the end. I know who I have believed and
persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed
unto Him against that day. What do we commit against Him?
Lord, You are our strength. You are our banner. All these men fought there against
the Malakots. They could see that rod of God
up on a mountain like soldiers looking at a flag in battle.
They might be wounded. They might be tired. They might
be sore. But Christ our banner is our
strength as we fight this battle. And it's made known. It's not hypothetical. It will
be proved to us that He's our strength. It says there in verse
12, But Moses' hands were heavy, They took a stone, put it under
him, and he sat there on, and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands,
the one on one side and the other on the other side, and his hands
were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua disconfited
Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword." Here, Moses
is a picture of cross preachers. Get weary. The battle's long. We become weary. I don't tell
you all about that all the time, but there's times I get weary,
get tired, get weak. The enemy within and without
is too mighty. It's too mighty. And it often
appears like that enemy is going to prevail. This is it. What are we going to do? But
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds." Well, let's not carnal about
that. There's two ways of looking at
this, and I want to tell you both of them. Moses is there
holding up that banner of God, the Lord our banner. And he's
got his brethren on either side of him. His older brother's on
one side, hers on the other. And they're comforting him and
helping him, aren't they? Supporting him. Helping him exalt Christ. What a beautiful picture. We
need one another, don't we? We do. But also Aaron's holding
up that rod of God. And on one side, who's working
in Aaron, who's working in her? Aaron was a high priest, wasn't
he? That was his elder brother. As a high priest, he's the one
that made the sacrifices. He was bloody. The picture of
Christ, He's always sitting on His throne interceding for His
people. On the other side of Him, Her, His name means white
light. The light of God. The God, the
Holy Spirit comes supporting the other side of Him. Upholding
Him. Praying, turning those prayers
into groanings which can't be uttered. Translating our prayers
for us. One making intercession, one
translating always. There again, that's not of us,
is it? And just as Joshua did here with
these Amalekites, all of our enemies, they're conquered through
the sword of the gospel. That's what disconfitted them,
was his sword. The sword of the gospel. God
uses those called by His grace, our brethren, to encourage one
another, to point one another to Christ. just as Aaron and
Hur helped Moses. And through that word of His
grace, Christ, our high priest, through the Holy Spirit, He sets
us upon Christ, our foundation stone, that chief cornerstone.
We're rested on Him, we're supported by Him, and we're exalting Him. We just happen to be there. We ain't lifting a finger. He's
doing all of it. Says in verse 14, And the Lord
said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial and a book, and rehearse
it in the ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar,
and called the name of it Jehovah Nisi. For he said, Because the
Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from
generation to generation. This ain't gonna stop. If I have
great-great-great-great-grandchildren, and one of them happens to be
called by God, loved by Him before time, and the Holy Spirit comes
to them and gives them a rebirth in their heart, gives them that
new birth, teaches them who Christ is, that He's our banner, and
that great-great-great-grandchild looks to Him, you know what's
going to happen? There's going to be a war with
Amalek inside of their heart until the sun goes down. Either
in their life, my life, whenever this body of death goes away,
that sun's gonna go down and that war's gonna be over and
all those sins blotted out forever to be remembered no more and
I'll be made like Christ. What a day that'll be. And when
that last day of this earth comes, that last child of God is brought
to know Christ, the sun's gonna go down. That war with Amalek's gonna
be over. See there, Moses didn't give himself the glory, did he?
He didn't say, I'm going to build me an altar, a memorial that
I held up this rod the whole time. This wasn't a fallen soldier's
memorial. Put a big granite wall up so
we remember everybody that fought in the battle. No, he called
the name of it Jehovah Nisi, the Lord My Banner. He's My Banner. Our great God assures His children,
that's His promise to us, that Christ will ultimately prevail
over all of our enemies. Enemies of this world, enemies
of Satan, the enemies of ourselves. He will be the victor because He has already prevailed.
We don't grasp that. I don't grasp that as I wish
I could. He said in John 16, be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. Now anything in this whole wide
world, what could I be worried about? Father, just look at Him,
the Lord of my banner. He's overcome the world. That's why He's telling Isaiah,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. We're going to fight this battle,
but it's already accomplished. And the better news is that our
iniquities are pardoned. For she hath received the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. Now under this banner, in the
military, you see people from all walks of life, all races,
all nationalities, all backgrounds, from all over the place. Some
rich, some poor. And they're all united under
that one banner. We've got the stars and stripes.
We might be from a lot of different places, but we all have that
flag on our shoulder. We wear the same flag. Christ
is that union for all believers. Because He's accomplished our
warfare and He's paid for our sins. Every one of them, just
the same. We unite under that one that
loved us and gave Himself for us. Every believer does. no matter
who they are. That's what Paul was telling
the church at Galatians. The Galatians, there's neither
Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither
male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And
if you be Christ, then you're Abraham's seed and heirs according
to the promise. How do we know which ones were
the Israelites? Those that were gathered underneath Jehovah Nissi.
Those that rallied to him. How do we know that we're Christ?
We cling to Him. We look to Him. We trust Him. Christ is the banner of His church,
and under that banner, we fight. We're called to service. We fight
this old nature that we're born with. And under this banner,
we prevail, looking to Him. And to this banner, we rally.
We run to Him. That's where safety is. That's
where peace is. That's where His victory is.
And we glory Him for it. Amen. Let's pray.